ISLAMABAD - Due to some technical and legal reasons, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has held that giving the right of franchise to the 5.5 million overseas Pakistanis is unfeasible, while it was advised by a parliamentary panel to take a leaf from Sri Lankan and Indian models.
The commission gave its input on a draft bill to make arrangements of voting for overseas Pakistanis in the elections. The government tabled this bill in compliance of a Supreme Court judgment. A parliamentary panel recently sought the electoral body's opinion and deferred the legislation on the basis that the plan was not workable at present.
In a recent meeting ECP Director General (Legal) Abdul Rehman briefed the lawmakers that in response to a petition filed by Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan before the Supreme Court, the commission carved four options to include overseas nationals in the electoral process. These options included casting of vote, proxy voting mechanism, setting up of polling stations in different government-owned buildings including embassies and electronic voting.
He said that as per Nadra's record till June 2014 more than 5.5 million Pakistanis have NICOP, an identity card which is issued to overseas Pakistanis. In Saudi Arabia, around two million (1.9 million) Pakistani are living. The official said that without government's funding polling booths cannot be set up at locations oversees as this exercise required huge resources.
Senator Jahangir Badr of Pakistan Peoples Party said that the commission could not do homework on this project. The ECP should conduct public hearing on this issue. The ECP officials told the panel that the commission has complete data of NICOP (National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis) holders and it is also in the notice of the electoral body that where these Pakistanis are living currently.
Justice (r) Sardar Raza apprised the panel that India has also given right of vote to overseas citizens and Sari Lanka has established a separate election commission for its overseas citizens.
Senator Badr asked the ECP officials to study the Indian model. The senator also held that the commission could not satisfy the public and it could not succeed in arranging a transparent election. Senator Kazim Khan, chairperson of Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice, asked the ECP to make the plan workable.
However, legal expert Senator Aitzaz Ahsan said that in the prevailing scenario no European country would allow a huge number of Pakistanis to assemble at one venue. He also said that Saudi Arabia would not let such gathering and they will also not tolerate such democratic activity on Kingdom’s land. He also said that there are a number of other logistics problems involved in this.